But what Dennis (Redmond) mentions about Dems as Party of Empire vs. the GOP as Party of Imperialism reminds me of a distinction Tariq Ali made somewhat along these lines. The Dems are multilateral imperialists while the GOP were unilateral imperialists, Tariq once said on Doug's show.
Economically, I've often felt the salient point of difference between the establishment Democratic Party and the establishment GOP is that the former prefers the long-term systemic stability of the capitalist system (hence the welfare state safeguards to blunt market extremes of financial tumult) while the GOP is more short-sighted and seems to often believe in sacrificing long-term systemic stability for certain sectors' short-term gains.
In this sense, Dems are in many ways really better managers of US capitalism. The GOP seem to continually put the US market system at risk, on a path of radical booms and busts, and seem willing to sacrifice the system's long term integrity for some short sighted aim. The point of Dem "social programs," GOP propagada to the contrary, has never been to sneak socialism through the back door, but simply to make US capitalism smoothly viable in the long run.
-B.
dredmond at efn.org wrote:
"Well, the sad truth is that the Dems are the Party of Empire, and the Reps are the Party of Imperialism. Of course, the MacChurian Candidate descended to his usual incantations, babbling mindlessly about Victory In Iraq like the Fuehrer in the bunker while the Katyushas pound Berlin into rubble."